Continued Crises in Haiti Post-Hurricane Reveal International Priorities

While US media has focused on Hurricane Sandy's destruction in the nation, the historic storm's global impact started days ago in Caribbean nations. In Haiti, the storm has left worries of a food crisis and another cholera outbreak, while the "disaster of decades of policies" by the international community compounds misery.

The "superstorm" pummeled Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Haiti causing 66 deaths, with 51 of those in Haiti, where there are still 370,000 living in displacement camps.

In the video posted below, earthquake tent camp survivors explain their worsening situation. “No one has brought anything to help us,” one man says. “It is though no one knows we exist.”

“We are hungry, things for me are bad, our tarp is torn,” a woman tells the camera. “It’s misery.”

Jean Debalio Jean-Jacques, the Haitian agriculture ministry's director for the southern department, warns of a food crisis approaching as the crops that were left after Isaac hit in August and food storage areas were lost when Sandy hit.

"The storm took everything away," Al Jazeera reports Jean-Jacques as saying. "Everything the peasants had in reserve - corn, tubers - all of it was devastated. Some people had already prepared their fields for winter crops and those were devastated."

Al Jazeera adds:

" The UN is warning that flooding and unsanitary conditions could lead to a sharp increase in cases of cholera, while aid workers are worried that extensive crop damage will mean that food prices will rise.

Extensive damage to crops throughout the southern third of the country, as well as the high potential for a surge in cases of cholera and other water-borne diseases, could mean Haiti will see the deadliest effects of Sandy in the coming days and weeks."

But the devastation in Haiti is not only a force of natural disasters.

Brian Concannon, Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, states that "Sandy shows that Haiti’s real disaster is decades of policies by Haitian governments and the international community that leave the government unable to provide the basic services necessary to reduce its citizens’ vulnerability to natural stress."

The Haitian government's plan now, says Alexis Erkert of the women-driven collaborative Other Worlds and the Under Tents international campaign, is forced evictions of camp dwellers. "The government has stated that they will prioritize clearing camps. Indeed, forced evictions are already on the rise, but still with no plan in place that assures Haiti’s homeless long-term access to safe, permanent and affordable housing," states Erkert.

The government is instead turning its attention towards foreign investment schemes like the Clinton's massive Caracol industrial park, while providing no path towards housing the hundreds of thousands of displaced Haitians.

"The lack of any housing plan — one that also ensures access to basic services — while the government is at the same time promoting opportunities for large-scale foreign investment is tragically indicative of the Haitian government and international community’s priorities for Haiti.

"International solidarity with the organized movements in Haiti that are calling for a social housing plan is more urgent now than ever," says Erkert.

The storm also has been felt north of the U.S. in Canada. Parts of Ontario, Quebec and parts of the Maritime provinces are now getting hit with heavy rains and winds from the storm, with southern Ontario expected to get hit most severely today. High surf and coastal flooding could be seen in areas.

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The”normalization” of diplomatic relations between the governments of the USA and Cuba should help eliminate many antiquated impediments imposed by these very same governments upon basic human bonds in both countries. [Castellano]

On the basis of the Call from Collective for the Compensation of Cholera Victims in which we participate, some 400 persons mobilized last October 19th to protest again against the presence of the MINUSTAH (U.N.) troops in Haiti.

Statement by the Colectivo La Libertad from Costa Rica on the increasing militarization of Central American-Caribbean area, the growing repression of the popular movement and of any form of social protest, and their position on the approval for the stationing of thousands of US Marines on Costa Rican territory. Solidarity! [Castellano] [Français]

May 18th, 2010, Flag Day commemoration! But: what flags? The American one, the French one, the Canadian, Chilean, Brazilian, Argentine, Bolivian, Ecuadorian, Paraguayan ones…? Or those of Jordan, Nepal, Congo, Senegal, China Israel, Sri Lanka…? Or, perhaps, those of Doctors without Borders or the Oxfam team?

The earthquake that shook Haiti on January 12th, also shook the consciousness and the heart of people all over the world, in whose eyes Haiti once again existed. It also shook our memory, since in between the press releases on this natural catastrophe, there have been leaks of the “social” catastrophes that have been suffered by the Haitian people and which are never taught at school. US and UN military occupations, bloody dictatorships backed by the Pentagon, embargoes and sanctions imposed by French and US imperialism, all of which have been as devastating as the earthquake. [Castellano]
[Français]
[Italiano]

In the early morning of Friday, December 22nd, starting at approximately 3 a.m., 400 Brazilian-led UN occupation troops in armored vehicles carried out a massive assault on the people of Cite Soleil, laying siege yet again to the impoverished community. Eyewitness reports said a wave of indiscriminate gunfire from heavy weapons began about 5 a.m. and continued for much of the day Friday -- an operation on the scale of the July 6, 2005 UN massacre in Cite Soleil. Detonations could be heard for miles, AHP reported.

The January 9 strike came two days after the death of the commander of U.N. military forces in Haiti Lt. Gen. Urano Bacellar. His death was initially reported as a suicide but U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti Juan Gabriel Valdes has implied in recent interviews to the Haitian press that it may have been an assassination by forces trying to disrupt the electoral process. And finally, the right-wing opposition of president Mbeki in South Africa with ties to Haiti's elite ridiculously implied that a sniper from their country, at the behest of Aristide, killed the general.

For us of Batay Ouvriye, this is a call that is directly and openly against our interests, we of the popular masses. In the solution they are requesting – and building -, the strike is a first step. The next will be against us, since already in the first one, they don’t take into account the true nature and true forms of OUR problems in the question of insecurity. In truth, broadly shooting down residents of the popular neighborhoods (the strike heads might as well ask for bombs to be dropped massively on them) solves the gang problem, for all they are concerned.

Article on the recent electoral process in Haiti, the (s)election of "Sweet Mickey" Martelly and the process of restoration of Duvalierism by the so-called international community. Originally appeared ins an edited version in the British magazine "The Commune" , issue 23 - July 2011, with the title "Another UN presidential (s)election in Haiti".

With the arrival of Baby Doc back in Haiti, the cycle opened by the extraordinarily tragic popular revolts of 1986 can be said to have come to completion. The restoration strategy of Duvalierism has succeeded, at least for now. Mouthing pious words about relief and wiping the crocodile tears about the misery they have created from their eyes, the "international community" has spared no efforts in helping the neo-Duvalierists bring about the Restoration. [Castellano]

At first glance, one might wonder what the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have in common with a UN “peace” mission on the opposite side of the world, in Haiti, a non Muslim country. Indeed, from the standpoint of US military casualties or US military expenditures, there is little in common

For more than 30 years, since the end of the 70’s, each year, without fail, progressives in NY have gathered to mark July 28, 1915, the anniversary of the first US occupation of Haiti, a 19 year occupation that made more than 15,000 victims, an occupation that radically changed Haiti.

The”normalization” of diplomatic relations between the governments of the USA and Cuba should help eliminate many antiquated impediments imposed by these very same governments upon basic human bonds in both countries. [Castellano]

Statement by the Colectivo La Libertad from Costa Rica on the increasing militarization of Central American-Caribbean area, the growing repression of the popular movement and of any form of social protest, and their position on the approval for the stationing of thousands of US Marines on Costa Rican territory. Solidarity! [Castellano] [Français]

The earthquake that shook Haiti on January 12th, also shook the consciousness and the heart of people all over the world, in whose eyes Haiti once again existed. It also shook our memory, since in between the press releases on this natural catastrophe, there have been leaks of the “social” catastrophes that have been suffered by the Haitian people and which are never taught at school. US and UN military occupations, bloody dictatorships backed by the Pentagon, embargoes and sanctions imposed by French and US imperialism, all of which have been as devastating as the earthquake. [Castellano]
[Français]
[Italiano]

In the early morning of Friday, December 22nd, starting at approximately 3 a.m., 400 Brazilian-led UN occupation troops in armored vehicles carried out a massive assault on the people of Cite Soleil, laying siege yet again to the impoverished community. Eyewitness reports said a wave of indiscriminate gunfire from heavy weapons began about 5 a.m. and continued for much of the day Friday -- an operation on the scale of the July 6, 2005 UN massacre in Cite Soleil. Detonations could be heard for miles, AHP reported.